Samuel Lee Liphardt, Malvika Pillai PhD
KEY POINTS BOX
Question: Given the substantial dietary contributions of excess sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat to the cardiometabolic epidemic among children and adults in the U.S., what is the healthiness of food inventory available at a major health-marketed retail grocery store?
Findings: In this cross-sectional assessment of 5988 food products across 15 distinct food categories from one U.S. Whole Foods Market location, 72.2% exceeded evidence-based thresholds for at least one of three nutrients of public health concern (sodium, added sugars, saturated fat). Only 17.9% were healthy for all three nutrients, which decreased to only 11.8% after excluding fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.
Meaning: Even a health-marketed grocery store stocks predominantly nutrient-unhealthy products, suggesting consumer reliance on store reputation as a healthfulness indicator may be misplaced, highlighting the need for retail nutrition standards and improved labeling systems.
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
Importance: Excessive sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars contribute substantially to cardiometabolic disease burden, yet the availability of nutrient-healthy products at specific retailers remains poorly characterized.
Objective: To assess the availability of nutrient-healthy products at a physical health-marketed retail grocery store.
Design, Setting, and Participants: Cross-sectional assessment of web-scraped food inventory from one grocery store location in Minnesota of the largest natural and organic grocery retailer, on March 13, 2025. This yielded 5988 food products across 15 main categories and 17 subcategories.
Main Outcomes and Measures: Proportion of products meeting FDA-based thresholds for sodium (<2,300 mg/2,000 kcal), added sugars (<50 g/2,000 kcal]), and saturated fat (<20 g/2,000 kcal).
Results: The largest food categories in the grocery store were Snacks (15.7%), Sauces (15.1%), and Dairy/dairy substitutes (14.9%). Fruits and vegetables comprised only 12.5% of inventory (7.7% fresh/frozen, 4.8% shelf-stable). Only 1073 (17.9%) met healthy criteria for all three nutrients. One in four Snacks was all-nutrient healthy, whereas fewer than 5% of Sauces and Dairy and dairy substitutes were.
Across the food categories, 72% of food products were unhealthy; they exceeded FDA-based thresholds for at least one of the three nutrients. Among shelf-stable fruits and vegetables, 62.9% had one or more unhealthy nutrients. Excess sodium was the most prevalent nutrient concern (47.2%), followed by saturated fat (39.0%) and added sugars (25.9%). Virtually all soups had excess sodium (97.3%). Desserts had the highest prevalence of excess added sugars (86.2%) and saturated fat (74.4%), with oils slightly lower for excess saturated fat (71.8%). Two-thirds of Dairy and dairy substitute products had excess saturated fat. Soups had the highest prevalence (36.4%) of both sodium and added sugars in excess, followed by Sauces (16.5%). Excess in both sodium and saturated fat was highest in frozen meals (55.6%), followed by Packaged meats (35.2%). Excess in both added sugars and saturated fat was highest in Desserts (69.5%), followed by Dairy Yogurt (48.1%) and Prepared Meals (31.0%).
Conclusions and Relevance: Three-quarters of food products of a health-marketed grocery store had unhealthy levels of target nutrients of cardiometabolic health. Even in a health-focused retailer, nutritionally healthy choices for cardiometabolism are limited across much of the store inventory. These findings point to the need for greater consumer transparency and nutrition standards for retail stores to serve the health of consumers.
INTRODUCTION
Excessive intake of sodium, added sugars, and saturated fat contributes to major diet-related chronic cardiometabolic diseases across the lifespan in the United States.1 Despite national dietary guidelines, large proportions of US adults and children exceed recommended limits for sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars.2 In adults aged 31 to 59 years, 82% to 97% exceed sodium limits, 70% to 73% exceed saturated fat limits, and 59% to 63% exceed added sugar limits,2 contributing to approximately 45% of all cardiometabolic disease deaths.1
Grocery stores are widely considered sources for healthy food acquisition, and the absence of a nearby grocery store is the defining feature of food deserts.3 Recent large-scale work has assessed food processing across food inventory nationwide for major retailers (eg, GroceryDB), while other approaches have evaluated retail food healthfulness using broader nutrient/processing-profiling and food-classification systems (eg, NOVA, Food Compass).4–6 Despite existing classification frameworks, the nutritional quality of retail food stores remains poorly characterized. Health-marketed retailers such as Whole Foods Market (WFM) emphasize the healthiness, low processing levels, and nutrient-rich quality of their inventory, yet the nutritional healthiness of physical store-specific consumer-facing inventory remains limited. We assessed the sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat content of the food inventory of a physical WFM store to present the consumer-facing nutritional quality of a health-marketed grocery environment.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Analytic Population
This analysis focused on a single brick-and-mortar store to reflect consumers’ food-choice options during in-store shopping. On March 13, 2025, we web-scraped the complete food inventory of a Whole Foods Market store (WFM; Minnetonka, MN, 55305). We selected a Whole Foods Market store because it is marketed as a health-focused grocery store, and therefore may represent a favorable food environment for consumers.7
Data Collection
We extracted product data through systematic online web-scraping of the WFM store’s entire food product inventory, using Python software. Products listed as ‘out of stock’ or ‘temporarily unavailable’ were included if nutritional information was accessible, as they represent the store’s standard inventory. We excluded non-food products (household products, personal care products), dietary supplements, and non-dairy beverages. We collected raw data on each distinct food product’s name, brand, category/aisle designation, ingredient list, and nutrition facts panel data (serving size, servings per container, and per serving: Calories, sodium, added sugars, saturated fat). We checked the data accuracy of web-scraped inventory against the product information online for the Minnetonka, MN, WFM store.
Analytic Sample
The initial web-scraping yielded 6975 distinct food products. A priori, we defined 15 mutually exclusive food categories, some with subcategories, that parallel the store’s aisles and sections. Of the 6975 products, 987 (14.2%) were unassignable to any category; these included chewing gum, non-chocolate candies, spices, and 314 (4.5%) food products lacking complete ingredient and/or Calorie and target nutrient information. The analytic sample consisted of the remaining 5988 distinct food products that were assignable to one of the 15 food categories.
The 15 primary food categories (and subcategories) comprised the following products: (1) Vegetables/Herbs (fresh, frozen, shelf); (2) Fruits (fresh, frozen, shelf); (3) Dairy/Dairy substitutes (cheese, yogurts, drinkable animal dairy and creams, plant-based dairy substitutes); (4) Meat products (packaged, fresh, eggs, plant-based substitutes); (5) Seafoods; (6) Peas/Beans/Lentils; (7) Sauces; (8) Snacks; (9) Meals (prepared, frozen, pantry); (10) Soups; (11) Breads; (12) Cereals/Oats; (13) Desserts; (14) Oils; and (15) Sweet/Salty Flavorings.
Sauces included butter, condiments, spreads, and dressings. Desserts included baked goods located in the bakery or pantry. Cereals included granola-based cereal, whereas snacks included granola-based ‘nutrition bars’. Sweet/salty flavorings consisted of salt, sugar, and sweetener products. The Meals category was based on the FDA’s definition of mixed foods and meals: food products with two or more food categories at the top of their ingredients lists. For example, frozen chicken alfredo pasta had pasta grain and chicken as its first two listed ingredients. Frozen chicken alfredo pasta was categorized as a mixed meal and sub-categorized as a Frozen meal product. Fruit yogurt was categorized as Dairy yogurt, consistent with Whole Foods Market’s consumer-facing labeling and location in the Dairy section. Protein bars were classified as Snack, not Cereal, since Whole Foods Market places them in the Snack section/aisle. A package of mixed granola was categorized as Cereal or Snack depending on Whole Foods Market’s placement in either the Cereal or Snack section/aisle.
Nutritional Assessment
We focused on the nutrients: sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat because of their established effect on cardiometabolic disease, their emphasis in clinical nutrition and management guidelines, and their alignment with the FDA’s updated “healthy” claim.8 We classified products as ‘nutrient-healthy’ or ‘nutrient-unhealthy’ for sodium, added sugars, and saturated fat per 2,000 kcal. Using the FDA’s daily value recommendations based on a 2,000-calorie diet, we calculated the nutrient density (per 2,000 Calories) for each of the three target nutrients with known information, per distinct food product:
[Nutrient content per serving in milligrams or grams] * [2,000 calories] / [Calories per serving].
This energy-density approach standardizes comparisons across diverse product types that have widely varying serving sizes and caloric content.10–12 Products were defined as “nutrient unhealthy” for a given nutrient if the nutrient density matched or exceeded FDA-recommended daily thresholds: sodium (>=2,300 milligrams); added sugar (>=50 grams), or saturated fat (>= 20 grams).9 Products were classified as “all-nutrient healthy” if the nutrient density was below the thresholds for all three target nutrients.
Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and frozen fruits were classified by default as nutrient-healthy, because they consisted entirely of fruits or vegetables and, when additives were present, those additives did not contribute sodium, added sugars, or saturated fat. Sweet/Salt flavorings category consisted of sugar, salt, or sweetener items and was exempted from the determination of nutrient health status.
Statistical analysis
In a cross-sectional descriptive analysis, we calculated absolute counts and percentages of food products that meet all-nutrient healthy and nutrient-unhealthy criteria overall and by food category. The prevalence of having at least two target nutrients in excess was also assessed. If nutrient information was missing for a target nutrient, the amount of that nutrient was designated as unknown/indeterminate.
Google Sheets was used for data management, descriptive statistics, and creating figures and tables. This project involved publicly available commercial product information and did not involve human subjects.
RESULTS
Consumer-facing Food Categories
Food items were concentrated in Snacks (n=936), Sauces (n=904), and Dairy/Dairy substitutes (n=893), each comprising approximately 16% of all products. Meals contributed another 11.8% (n=709) (Figure 1). In contrast, Peas/Beans/Lentils (n=233) and Fruits (n=214), as well as Cereals/Oats (n=140) and Seafood (n=87) were among the smallest categories, while Sweet/Salt flavoring items alone had 102 products. Dairy & dairy substitutes, Sauces, and Peas/Beans/Lentils contributed the highest percentage of products with missing nutrient or ingredient information.
Meal category had the following subcategories: 227 Frozen meals, 287 Packaged meals, and 195 Prepared meals. Fruits were subcategorized into 26 Frozen, 100 Fresh, and 88 Shelf, as were Vegetables: 67 Frozen, 269 Fresh, 198 Shelf. Meats consisted of 128 packaged meats, 99 fresh meats, 36 Eggs and substitutes, and 92 plant-based meat substitutes. Animal Dairy and Dairy substitutes were subcategorized: 320 Cheeses, 181 Yogurts, 153 Drinkable Animal Dairy and Cremes, and 239 Plant-based Dairy substitutes. Twenty sweeteners, 31 all-sugar, and 51 all-salt items were in the Sweet/Salt flavoring category.
Of 5988 store food products, fruits and vegetables comprised only 12.5%, with 7.7% being fresh/frozen fruits (n=126) and vegetables (n=336), and the remaining 4.8% being shelf-stable vegetables (n=198) and fruits (n=88). At least one target nutrient was unhealthy among 62.9% of shelf-stable fruits and vegetables.
All-Healthy Foods
Only 17.9% (n=1073) met healthy criteria for all three nutrients across the food categories (Table 1). Vegetable and fruit products accounted for nearly half (47.1%; n=505). Accounting for another 34.8% were Snacks (25.5%), Shelf-stable vegetables/fruits (22.7%), and Peas/Beans/Lentils (20.2%). The all-healthy Snacks consisted of nuts, dried fruits, low-salt chips, popcorn, and fruit, nut, and protein bars. The all-healthy Shelf-stable vegetables/fruits consisted of vegetables and fruits alone, with or without juice or concentrate. Organic beans and chickpea-based products were the all-healthy products in Peas/Beans/Lentils. Only 13.6% and 14.1% of Cereal/Oats (predominantly oats) and Breads, respectively, were all-healthy. Under 10% were all-healthy among Meats, Seafoods, Plant-based Meat, Dairy substitutes, and Prepared Meals. The categories with the lowest all-healthy percentages were Soups (1.1%), Frozen Meals (2.2%), Sauces (3.4%), and Desserts (0.3%).
Unhealthy Foods by Category
Overall, 72.2% of the food products in the grocery store were unhealthy. The four largest categories, each exceeding 10% of store products, were predominantly unhealthy (Table 1). Dairy and dairy substitutes comprised 14.9% of food products; 85.7% were unhealthy overall, including 98.7% of Drinkable dairy and creams and 74.1% of Dairy cheeses. Notably, 90% of Dairy substitutes were also unhealthy. Meals comprised 11.8% of store food products, of which 85.0% were unhealthy, including 94.3% of frozen meals and 84.3% of shelf-stable meals. Notably, 75.4% of the store’s Prepared meals were also unhealthy. The two largest categories, Sauces (n=904, 15.1%) and Snacks (n=936, 15.7%) contained 72.2% and 69.0% unhealthy products, respectively.
Cardiometabolic Target Nutrients
Overall, sodium in excess was the most prevalent (n=2828, 47.2%), with excess saturated fat a close second (39.0%, n=2333) and excess added sugar the least prevalent (n=1548, 25.9%) (Table 2). Across food categories, the median prevalence of excess sodium was 29.7% (IQR, 19.4%-54.8%), affecting virtually all Soups (97.3%), Shelf-stable meats (90.6%), Frozen meals (87.2%), and Breads (81.8%). Excess saturated fat was most prevalent (median 28.9%; IQR, 15.4%-49.0%) in Dairy subcategories, including Drinkable dairy and cream (89.5%), Dairy Yogurt (74.0%) and Dairy cheese (72.5%), as well as Desserts (74.4%) and Shelf-stable meats (64.8%). Excess added sugars had the lowest median prevalence (14.4%; IQR, 3.5%-34.5%) overall but were highest in Desserts (86.2%), Cereals/oats (62.1%), and Dairy yogurts (62.4%).
Combinations of Excess Sodium, Added Sugar, and Saturated Fat
Overall, 37.9% of store products were unhealthy for exactly a pair of target nutrients. Having excess added sugar and saturated fat existed in 16.1% of products, followed closely by 14.6% with excess in both sodium and saturated fat, and 7.1% with excess in both sodium and added sugar. Soups had by far the highest prevalence (36.4%) of excess in both sodium and added sugar, followed by Sauces (16.5%), Breads (14.1%), and the Cereals portion of Cereals/Oats (11.4%). Frozen meals had the highest prevalence (55.6%) of excess in both sodium and saturated fat, followed by the following with at least 20% prevalence: Shelf-stable meats (35.2%), Sauces (27.0%), Prepared meals (25.1%), Shelf-stable meals (20.9%), and Seafood (20.7%). The following had at least 30% prevalence of excess in both added sugar and saturated fat: Desserts (69.5%), Dairy Yogurt (48.1%), and Prepared meals (31.0%). Few products had all three nutrients in excess, with the highest prevalence in drinkable dairy/cream (7.8%), desserts (6.7%), soups (6.4%), and sauces (4.9%).
DISCUSSION
We focused on the food consumers’ vantage point and their options for key nutrient quality during in-store grocery shopping at a health-marketed grocery store. Only 17.9% of products met healthy criteria for all three target nutrients: sodium, added sugars, and saturated fat, and nearly half of those were fresh or frozen produce. And, 72.2% of the in-store food products were unhealthy based on excess in at least one of the three target nutrients. The high prevalence of nutrient-unhealthy products in soups, yogurts, prepared foods, and meats suggests that foods often perceived as healthy may contribute substantially to excess intake of cardiometabolic risk nutrients. These findings challenge the assumption that health-marketed retailers provide predominantly nutritious food options and suggest that consumer access to healthy foods likely remains constrained even in health-conscious grocery retail settings. If nearly three-quarters of products in a market-leading, health-branded grocery store exceed nutritional thresholds, consumers shopping at conventional/budget supermarkets may face even fewer healthy options.
Clinical guidelines have even more stringent target nutrient thresholds than the FDA for large subpopulations of consumers, both adults and children, based on cardiometabolic health status, including the presence of hypertension, heart failure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, and dyslipidemia.13–16 The concentration of unhealthy products in popular categories such as soups, breads, dairy products, and prepared meals may make it more difficult for consumers to follow general dietary guidelines or tailored cardiometabolic dietary recommendations. This nutritional landscape, combined with an unhealthy restaurant environment, may partially explain why most Americans exceed sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar limits.2,17 Even health-conscious shoppers face a health halo effect around grocery stores that leads to consumers unknowingly overestimating grocery stores’ nutritional quality.18 The findings expose the inadequacy of relying solely on consumer choice and retailer branding claims to improve the food environment.
This study’s primary strength lies in its assessment of an entire store inventory using standardized, FDA-based nutrient thresholds applied consistently across all product categories through nutrient-density calculations that account for varying serving sizes, caloric content, and food groups. The focus on a single brick-and-mortar location reflects the actual choice environment consumers encounter during shopping. This study complements prior large-scale datasets studies and technical food classification systems with a more direct portrayal of the in-store shopping environment.
Limitations: Several limitations warrant consideration. First, the single-store, single-retailer design limits generalizability, but it also provides more applicable results to consumers shopping at specific grocery stores. Results should not be assumed to represent all Whole Foods Market inventories nationwide because, although stores likely share a substantial standardized core, including many “365 by Whole Foods Market” products, a considerable minority of the inventory is local or regional and varies by location, with stores reporting from hundreds to about 2,000 local products.19–22 Second, not all food products were included in the analytic sample; this could introduce selection bias that leads to miscalculations of healthiness or unhealthiness. Third, our binary classification approach (nutrient healthy vs. nutrient unhealthy) does not capture the magnitude by which products exceed thresholds, potentially incompletely representing the severity of nutritional concerns for products far exceeding limits or vice versa. Furthermore, our assessment does not account for shelf space occupied by a given food item or category, product placement, purchase frequency, or sales volume. Products rarely purchased were weighted equally to high-volume items in our prevalence calculations. In addition, although a per-Calorie approach may appropriately identify products such as soups as high in sodium relative to energy intake, it may not fully capture other characteristics that impact consumer behavior, such as satiety, volume, and amount typically consumed. For example, a broth-based soup contains relatively few calories but will still provide substantial volume and satiety because of its high water content.23 However, the per-Calorie approach offers standardization and comparison across food categories and subcategories. Finally, processed foods were not assessed.
Future research: Future research should extend this methodology to other supermarket chains, discount retailers, and independent grocers to establish comparative nutritional quality and food processing benchmarks across the retail food landscape. Beverages should also be analyzed, as they account for ~1150 products and affect cardiometabolic health in children and adults. The effects of the FDA’s updated “healthy” claim on product labels should be evaluated after its expected compliance date of 2028.24
Conclusion: This nutritional assessment of a brick-and-mortar health-marketed grocery store’s inventory reveals that three-quarters of food products exceed evidence-based thresholds for nutrients of cardiometabolic concern. Even in a health-marketed retail environment, nutritionally healthy options for consumers are limited, which hampers consumers’ making healthy food choices and achieving or sustaining healthy well-being.
REFERENCES
23. Mattes R. Soup and satiety. Physiol Behav. 2005;83(5):739-747. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2004.09.021
This study used publicly available product-level nutrition and inventory information from a retail grocery website. No human participants, new data collection, patient data, identifiable private information, or biological specimens were involved. Therefore, IRB review was not required.
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